Category: 5-Stars

Posted on

Book Review: That One Night (The Heartbreak Brothers Next Generation Book 4) by Carrie Elks  @CarrieElks

That One Night
(The Heartbreak Brothers Next Generation # 4)
by Carrie Elks

 

Amazon / B&N / BB

 

She’s back in her hometown with a shattered heart, a suitcase full of secrets, and no idea how to put herself back together…

After discovering her fiancé’s ultimate betrayal, Emery Reed returns to the only place that ever felt like home. Her family’s crumbling farm in Hartson’s Creek.

She tells everyone she’s just here for the summer. But what she doesn’t say is that the wedding’s off. Or that the life she spent ten years building is gone.

Most days, it’s all she can do to breathe under the weight of everyone’s expectations.

Then she meets him. Hendrix Hartson. The grumpy, tattooed neighbor who’s just as guarded as she is broken. And he makes her feel something she thought she’d lost for good. Hope.

But Emery isn’t the sweet, straightforward girl he thinks she is. And if the truth comes out, it could break them both.

Because Emery’s heart isn’t just bruised. It’s fractured. Fragile.
And falling for him might be the final break.

That One Night is a standalone, raw, emotional small-town romance about two scarred souls, one impossible connection, and the kind of love that dares you to believe in forever. Even when it hurts…

My Rating:

Favorite Quote:

 

I’m not overthinking. I’m catastrophizing. It’s different.

My Review:

 

Carrie Elks’ characters are so knowable I feel I would recognize them at first sight. The main characters in this installment were flawed and struggling, yet genuine and endearing. I relish her storytelling; her writing has a smooth flow and is easy to fall into, allowing me to lose myself. This installment was more tropey than I would have liked, but I enjoyed it regardless.

 

Carrie Elks writes contemporary romance with a sizzling edge. Her first book, Fix You, has been translated into eight languages and made a surprise appearance on Big Brother in Brazil. Luckily for her, it wasn’t voted out. Carrie lives with her husband, two lovely children, and a larger-than-life black pug called Plato. When she isn’t writing or reading, she can be found baking, drinking an occasional (!) glass of wine, or chatting on social media.

Posted on

Book Review: Crystal Creek (A Port Promise Novel Book 2) by Kelly Collins @kcollinsauthor

Crystal Creek
(A Port Promise Novel Book 2) 
by Kelly Collins 

Amazon / BB

She came to Alaska for a photo shoot. She didn’t expect to be stranded with a grumpy survival guide and no cell service.

Lena Kensington’s career is in freefall. A remote lodge in Alaska was supposed to be her comeback—a few glamorous photos, a scenic backdrop, a quick exit. Instead, she lands in the middle of a rugged reality series with one rule: no script, no filters, and no escape.

Even worse? Her guide is Finn Hollister, the brooding lodge owner blindsided by a contract that forces him into the wilderness with the very type of woman he’s spent years avoiding.
But the wild has its own agenda.

Stripped of makeup, headlines, and the walls they’ve built around their hearts, Lena and Finn begin to see each other—and themselves—more clearly. She’s tougher than she looks. He’s not nearly as cold as he seems. And somewhere between bear warnings and blizzards, something real begins to grow.

She’s the outsider with everything to prove.
He’s the local with everything to lose.

Out here, survival isn’t the only thing at stake—so is their chance at forever.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

He moves through the world with a quiet kind of certainty, like he’s reading a map I can’t see. Like he understands things I’ve never learned to name.

Honestly, a squirrel with a head injury could probably find north faster than this guy.

“Your voice went up about three octaves,” I point out. “You sounded like you were auditioning for a boys’ choir.

My Review:

 

Much like the female main character at the beginning of this engaging tale, I’m a lazy girly-girl, and not a wilderness-loving, camping, or even glamping kinda gal. I need hot and cold running water, a memory foam mattress, and a bug and varmint-free climate-controlled sleeping environment. So I cringed and flinched a bit while reading their less-than-comfortable trek across the Alaskan frontier, as Kelly Collins has the superb knack of slotting me into the scenes of her characters’ encounters… consider me a less-than-innocent bystander.

The two main characters were not immediately endearing or lovable, but they soon won me over as their prickly edges smoothed. As always, Ms. Collins’ descriptive writing style was easy to fall into, perceptively detailed, well-paced, and keenly honed for a quick and entertaining read.

 

ABOUT KELLY COLLINS   

 

  Goodreads  / Website  / Amazon / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest / Bookbub

Kelly Collins is a bestselling, award-winning author of feel-good small-town romance filled with heart, heat, and happily-ever-afters. Her books are perfect for readers who crave heartwarming contemporary love stories, sassy heroines, and slow-burn romances with cinnamon roll heroes you’ll wish were real.

With humor, charm, and emotional depth, Kelly brings to life tight-knit towns, unforgettable characters, and the kind of love that feels like coming home. When she’s not plotting her next happily-ever-after, she’s sipping strong coffee and dreaming up heroes who are tough on the outside and gooey in the middle.

Come for the charm, stay for the swoon—and don’t be surprised if you fall in love with the whole town.

Posted on

Book Review: The Case of the Body on the Orient Express (The Detection Club #2) by Kelly Oliver @KellyOliverBook

The Case of the Body on the Orient Express
(The Detection Club #2)
by Kelly Oliver

 

Amazon  / B&N / Apple / GP / BB

Kelly Oliver’s brilliantly addictive Detection Club cozy mystery series

Paris, 1928: Agatha Christie and fellow writer Dorothy L Sayers board the Orient Express, bound for Constantinople. Christie in particular is looking forward to a break from recent dispiriting events in both her work and private life – the finalisation of her divorce from her philanderous husband Archie, and the miserly reception of her latest book.

But before the duo can settle in to enjoy the luxuries of their first-class journey, their journey is derailed when a fellow guest drops dead during the dinner service. And as the last person to speak to the victim, Dorothy finds herself a prime suspect in his murder.

As the train hurtles East, Sayers’ resourceful assistant Eliza and her friend Theo must navigate a maze of suspects. But with each passing mile, the stakes rise, and when another body is discovered, their search to find the killer before they reach their destination becomes increasingly complicated.

Can Eliza and Theo stay one step ahead, crack the mystery and clear Dorothy’s name? Or will this be one journey too far for the amateur sleuths?

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

For a large woman, Dorothy L. Sayers was quick on her feet. The only things quicker than her feet were her wit and her temper.

Why would anyone pretend to be poor? She knew from experience that poverty wasn’t romantic, but an unfortunate condition to be avoided at all costs.

Didn’t people read to escape the horrors of life rather than wallow in them? Theo was all for verisimilitude, but he had to draw the line somewhere: namely, sharing a toilet with someone who hadn’t bathed since the nineteenth century.

Apparently, MI5 suspected one of the writers, probably Agatha Christie, had access to classified information. From what Eliza had seen, the mystery writers had access to nothing more classified than overactive imaginations.

Like a moth between panes of glass, he was stuck between what he was and what he wanted to be.

My Review:

 

I adore Kelly Oliver’s smooth and amusing writing style. I so covet her word craft. She weaves an entertaining, easy-to-follow, and engaging tale that never fails to hold my interest with her well-plotted mysteries and clever arrangements of words that put a smile on my face with her colorful descriptions and authentic and quirky characters.

Kelly Oliver grew up in the Northwest, Montana, Idaho, and Washington states. Her maternal grandfather was a forest ranger committed to saving the trees, and her paternal grandfather was a logger hell-bent on cutting them down. On both sides, her ancestors were some of the first settlers in Northern Idaho. In her own unlikely story, Kelly went from eating a steady diet of wild game shot by her dad to becoming a vegetarian while studying philosophy and pondering animal minds. Competing with peers who’d come from private schools and posh families “back East,” Kelly’s working-class backwoods grit has served her well. And much to her parents’ surprise, she’s managed to feed and clothe herself as a professional philosopher.

When she’s not writing mysteries, Kelly Oliver is a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University. She earned her B.A. from Gonzaga University and her Ph.D. from Northwestern University. She is the author of thirteen scholarly books, ten anthologies, and over 100 articles, including work on campus rape, reproductive technologies, women and the media, film noir, and Alfred Hitchcock. Her work has been translated into seven languages, and she has published an op-ed on loving our pets in The New York Times. She has been interviewed on ABC television news, the Canadian Broadcasting Network, and various radio programs.

Kelly lives in Nashville with her husband, Benigno Trigo, and her furry family, Mischief and Mayhem.

 

Posted on

Book Review: The Unlucky Ones (Black Harbor #4) by Hannah Morrissey  @hannahmorrisseywriter @minotaur_books

The Unlucky Ones
(Black Harbor #4)
by Hannah Morrissey

 

Amazon  / B&N / Apple / GP / BB

 

A police transcriber-turned-novelist returns to Black Harbor to help solve the case of her ex-husband’s murder in the next riveting Black Harbor, featuring the return of characters from Hannah Morrissey’s breakout debut, Hello, Transcriber.

Black Harbor is a tinderbox. Temperatures and violent crime have both risen to all-time highs, a new drug razes the city, and the scene to which Sergeant Nikolai Kole responds is anything but a rote homicide. In the back of a clubhouse lies a body wrapped in garbage bags and doused in bleach.

It isn’t just any body. Tommy Greenlee, the ex-husband of Kole’s former lover, Hazel, has been shot several times and left for dead. What’s more…the killer left what appears to be a calling card.

Elsewhere, Hazel is haunted by her memories of Black Harbor. Lured there after eight years, she returns to find out who killed Tommy and why. Now back in Kole’s orbit, their love affair can hardly pick up where it left off. They both used each other to their own ends before, which begs the question: would they do it again?

With the atmosphere growing more volatile by the second, Hazel and Kole call a truce, and as they work together to solve this murder, they will not only unearth Black Harbor’s deepest, darkest secrets–they’ll each have to face their own

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Not a lot of good comes out of there, but a lot of bad passes through.

While turning a funeral into a bender isn’t a crime, it is frowned upon, like driving naked or marrying your stepsister.

We always remember our firsts and lasts, don’t we? It’s everything in the middle that ends up in one congealed mess.

He takes that as his cue to get out of the car, skirting around a patch of fake hair flattened to the asphalt like roadkill. Tumbleweave comes with the territory. It’s all fun and games until someone’s wig gets yanked off.

I’ve finally accepted that some feelings are only meant to be felt, not explained.

My Review:

 

I consistently peruse over a hundred or more books a year and can’t recall but a few storylines from most of them soon after. However, even several years later, this dark and gritty series has stayed with me, far beyond the salient details. Hannah Morrissey has strong word voodoo and has mastered the craft of storytelling. She pulls me into an absorbing vortex with her compelling tales and paints complete and startling movie reels with her descriptive word choices, which are most often simultaneously heart-squeezing, consuming, and brain-tickling. I had been longing for Hazel and Cole to reconnect with each other since the first installment, and had cracked open each new addition to the series with that eager anticipation. Now my fervent hopes are for yet more installments of Ms. Morressey’s addictive missives.

 

 

Hannah Morrissey is the author of the Black Harbor suspense series, which includes Hello, Transcriber, The Widowmaker, and When I’m Dead. A three-decade survivor of Wisconsin winters, Hannah enjoys putting her characters (and readers) in bone-chilling atmospheres that permeate beyond the page. Naturally, her books have carved out their own sub-genre of “Midwestern Noir.”

Between roles of bookseller and copywriter, Hannah was inspired to write her debut novel while transcribing reports for her local police department. Far from home in a grim, crime-ridden city, it was her job to sit alone in the dead of night, listen, and type as detectives divulged the city’s darkest secrets. There, she realized that every case was a story, and every story started with the same two words: “Hello, Transcriber.”

Hannah graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Madison where she majored in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing. She grew up in a small northern town and now lives near Milwaukee with her husband, three pugs, and a TBR pile that never seems to get any smaller.

Posted on

Book Review: The All-Inclusive  (The Jilted Brides Honeymoon Club Book 3) by Tawna Fenske @tawnafenskebooks

The All-Inclusive
 (The Jilted Brides Honeymoon Club Book 3)
by Tawna Fenske

Amazon / BB

 

A sweet little virgin left at the altar by her brooding alpha hero.
Such a trite tale, right?
But it happened to me, so I’m ready to blow up the whole damn fairytale.
That’s not all I’ll be blowing, if you catch my drift.
Yes, I just made a sex joke. So what?
I’m done being the good girl.
My besties came to the Jilted Brides Honeymoon Club and had their wildest fantasies fulfilled.
Sign me up for the same, please.
So what if my only real fantasy was marrying my hot Navy SEAL sweetheart?
I still don’t get why he swears that would ruin my life.
Shouldn’t I be the judge of that?
Screw judgment.
I’m here at this exclusive, luxury resort with a menu of explicit choices
And dozens of men eager to satisfy my curiosity.
There’s even a package for virgins like me.
But what happens when the only man I’ve loved storms in to claim me for himself?
My real-life military hero has something to get off his chest.
And he’s got his hands all over mine.
But the secret he’s hidden so well all these years has the power to change us forever.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

You know it’s Portland when you have to specify which vegan strip club.

My Review:

 

Holy scorched sheets, this missive was atomically hot! This is the final installment of the series, and it was on fire from beginning to end; my Kindle was sweating, and so was I. There were multiple well-paced and relevant storylines with the plot featuring a dumped, repressed, chastity culture virgin bride who had been saving herself for her Marine fiancé/childhood sweetheart, who BTW, had been sampling a variety of wares elsewhere. Sparks flew, romance bloomed, snarky repartee was flung about, family issues were dealt with, and all had a much-anticipated and highly desired happy ending. Sigh, if only real life ran as smoothly as this was written.

About the Author 

Website 
Amazon
Goodreads
Facebook
Twitter 
Instagram

 

 

When Tawna Fenske finished her English lit degree at 22, she celebrated by filling a giant trash bag full of romance novels and dragging it everywhere until she’d read them all. Now she’s a RITA-nominated, USA Today bestselling author who writes humorous fiction, risqué romance, and heartwarming love stories with a quirky twist. Publishers Weekly has praised Tawna’s offbeat romances with multiple starred reviews and noted, “There’s something wonderfully relaxing about being immersed in a story filled with over-the-top characters in undeniably relatable situations. Heartache and humor go hand in hand.”

Tawna lives in Bend, Oregon, with her husband, stepkids, and a menagerie of ill-behaved pets. She loves hiking, snowshoeing, standup paddleboarding, and inventing excuses to sip wine on her back porch. She can peel a banana with her toes and loses an average of twenty pairs of eyeglasses per year. To find out more about Tawna and her books, visit www.tawnafenske.com.

Posted on

Book Review: Death at a Paris Hotel (Lady Eleanor Swift #22) by Verity Bright  @BrightVerity  @Bookouture 

Death at a Paris Hotel
(Lady Eleanor Swift #22)
by Verity Bright

 

Amazon  / B&N /  BB

For Lady Eleanor Swift, Paris means champagne at breakfast, romantic walks by the Eiffel Tower… and her deadliest case yet!

Newlyweds Lady Swift and Detective Hugh Seldon are honeymooning in the most romantic city on earth. Clifford, her butler,has come along for the trip to make sure everything goes to plan for the happy couple. And Gladstone, the mischievous bulldog, to make sure it doesn’t!

But the pair are shocked when, just as they are toasting their new marriage at the best table in their hotel’s opulent restaurant, a man tumbles through the glass roof and lands amid the silverware and coq au vin. Before he dies, he presses a striking pearl brooch into Eleanor’s hands. She has the strangest feeling of déjà vu. Has she met this man before? All too quickly, the local police arrive and immediately accuse the new Mr. and Mrs. of working with the victim – a thief who’d just robbed the museum down the block.

With her new husband by her side, Eleanor races to clear their name and discover who would kill to get their hands on the unusual brooch. Following a clue about a doomed love affair takes the gang from the famous cabarets and cobbled streets of Paris to rubbing shoulders with the aristocracy at the very top of the Eiffel Tower.

But soon Eleanor notices a mysterious man in black following their every footstep. Is he friend or foe? And can Eleanor and Hugh unravel the case before the City of Light becomes the city of death?

An utterly charming and unputdownable golden age cozy mystery set in Paris. Fans of T.E. Kinsey, Catherine Coles, and Lee Strauss will adore it.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

She never meant to be late. Distractions just seemed to impede her arriving on time.

…they were met by the fantastically sculpted side whiskers and moustache of Monsieur Omfroy emerging onto the street. He regarded them with a look of alarm. She reciprocated with a genial wave, fleetingly wondering if there was a Madame Omfroy in his life, or if his facial hair was companion enough.

He smiled like a hungry crocodile.

I pity those knights of old who tried to rescue damsels in distress with a stubborn rhinoceros streak like you though. I’d have crept off quietly and left you to the dragon.

‘He’s signaling discreetly to that man in overalls over there.’ Clifford sniffed. ‘Hardly discreetly, my lady. A touch of St Vitus’s dance would have been less noticeable.’

 

My Review:

 

I continue my hero worship of all things Verity Bright, as I have adored each installment of this delightful series. Their well-honed writing style is smooth and polished, easy to fall into, and amusingly entertaining, while the enigmatic mysteries and murders are well-contrived and cleverly plotted. This volume ranks as one of my favorites because the couple is finally wed and on a Parisian honeymoon, which places the Scotland Yard detective on vacation and shows his unexpected, marshmallow-like, gooey, soft romantic side. Their honeymoon was certainly memorable and eventful.

About the Author

.
Verity Bright is the pseudonym for a husband-and-wife writing partnership that has spanned a quarter of a century. Starting out writing high-end travel articles and books, they published everything from self-improvement to humor, before embarking on their first historical mystery. They are the authors of the fabulous Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery series, set in the 1920s.

Posted on

Book Review: Peak Cruelty  by Britney King  @britneyking_

Peak Cruelty
by Britney King 

 

A luxury kidnapping?

Or a disaster in the making?

He’s done this before—followed women, watched them, waited for their secrets to surface.
It always ends the same. He chooses the perfect victim.
And then he makes them pay.

But this one?

She’s too perfect. Too normal. The kind of woman who smiles like she has nothing to hide.
That’s what gives her away.

When she leaves the hospital that night, he’s ready. Calm. Precise.
Until she turns to him and says: “This is a mistake.”

She’s not talking about him.

By the time he realizes he’s taken the wrong woman—she’s already inside the house. Locked in. Living by his rules.

But she’s not afraid. She won’t confess.
She won’t break.

Because she’s not the victim.
And whatever she’s hiding?
It’s not just darker than his past.
It might be deadlier.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

The morning is overcast. The air tastes like ocean and electricity.

Time passes. The sun moves like it has somewhere better to be.

My Review:

 

This tense and evocatively written missive had me tied up in knots from beginning to end. Britney King has mastered her craft and possesses hypnotically strong word voodoo. I know this for a fact as each time I resumed my perusal, I quickly tumbled back into the characters’ vortex and often found myself deeply disturbed while clenching my teeth, gripping my Kindle like a vise, and sitting hunched with my shoulders to my ears.

Yet I was riveted, as if entranced, and couldn’t stop reading this wickedly twisted tale, even if I’d wanted to… which I didn’t… and I worry what that says about me… I used to be so nice…

 

About the Author

Britney King lives in Austin, Texas with her husband, children, two dogs, one ridiculous cat, and a partridge in a pear tree.

When she’s not wrangling the things mentioned above, she writes psychological, domestic, and romantic thrillers set in suburbia.
Without a doubt, connecting with readers is the best part of this gig. You can find Britney online here:

Posted on

Book Review: Rough Around the Hedges by Emma Hart @emmahartauthor

Rough Around the Hedges
by Emma Hart

Amazon  / B&N/ BB

 

He’s the city boy who wants to destroy the place she loves most.
She’s the countryside girl who is determined to break him first.
But when hearts are involved, can either of them truly win?

I, Rose Matthews, have always considered myself a perfectly reasonable person.
Until the day Oliver de Havilland—the hottie I wham, bam, thank you ma’am’d two weeks ago—shows up at Hanbury Allotments and hands me a closure notice. In two months, he’s going to shut down the place I love the most—the very place that keeps the dwindling community of our village alive.
Long story short; I’m ready to riot.
Riot. Protest. Run naked through the village centre with nothing but lettuce leaves covering my lady bits. You know, the usual.
The new Duke of Hanbury is as arrogant as the last, but there’s no way I’m going to let him get away with this. Especially not since his plan is to sell the land to make way for more cookie-cutter housing nobody wants.

This is more than a battle of wits—it’s a war, and a dirty one at that.
But I won’t lose.
Because if Oliver didn’t want to play dirty, he shouldn’t have roughed up a gardener…

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

It was truly surprising how many people were interested in a calendar of naked people covering their wobbly bits with their homegrown vegetables. The internet was a strange place.

“How else should I put it?” I replied. “That we engaged in coitus? Partook in premarital activities?” He stared at me. “Tossed the hotdog down the hallway,” Isa offered. I snapped my fingers in her direction. “Did the bedtime slip’n’slide.” “Planted the parsnip.” “Fed the kitty.” “Stuffed the taco.” “Buried the bone.” “Slammed the ham.” I paused. “Why are all your sex euphemisms food- related?”

Oli, this woman is two colours short of a rainbow.

Maybe Eleanor de Havilland had a few screws loose. Well, even if she did, she was in good company. I barely had any screws, much less loose ones.

Always ask for someone’s name before you do the dance with no pants.

Put your fishing pole away. There are no compliments here for you to catch.

… she was practically running this town like a mafia lord now. The woman was a master of deceit— everyone thought she was a kind, sweet lady always willing to lend a hand, but she was actually a rabid bull who had no qualms about breaking down a door or two to get what she wanted.

My Review:

 

I adore this author, Emma Hart is da bomb! I have gleefully giggle-snorted my way through every book of hers that I’ve been lucky enough to source. Her well-honed tales are laced together with clever wit, keen snark, and sharp visuals that dance through my gray matter while featuring authentically quirky characters that I enjoy getting to know. I can’t wait to see what she conjures next.

About the Author

New York Times & USA Today bestselling author, Emma Hart, has written more than seventy romance novels in the last decade. She loves writing snarky, swoony romcoms with a side of chaos, occasionally venturing into romantic mysteries. Which are exactly the same as her romcoms, just with a dead body or two. That’s the reason for her questionable Internet history—at least that’s the story she’s sticking to it.

She lives on a smallholding in North Wales with her husband and their two children, a clowder of very fluffy cats, one giant German Shepherd, and an undisclosed number of chickens and ducks. Don’t ask her to count them. She will not, thank you very much.

When she’s not writing or chasing ducks in her pajamas, you can find her creating cozy gaming content for her Youtube channel and live streaming on Twitch.

Find her online:

Amazon: https://emmahart.pub/books 

Youtube: https://emmahart.pub/youtube 

Twitch: https://emmahart.pub/twitch 

Facebook: https://emmahart.pub/Facebook 

Instagram: https://emmahart.pub/Instagram 

Tiktok: https://emmahart.pub/TikTok 

Twitter: https://emmahart.pub/Twitter 

Website: https://emmahart.pub/site 

 

Posted on

Book Review: Next To Heaven by James Frey   @jamesfrey_

Next To Heaven
by James Frey

Amazon  / B&N / GP / BB

 

Uncover the dark underbelly of the American dream America’s most perfect town, in this “lurid” and “propulsive” novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author James Frey (New York Times Book Review Podcast)–and discover a world where privilege, sex, scandal, and murder lurk beneath a flawless veneer.

New Bethlehem, Connecticut. Picture-perfect lawns, manicured hedges, and multi-million dollar homes present a carefully curated facade. But beneath the designer yoga gear and country club memberships lies a darker reality.

In this world of excess, best friends Devon and Belle have it all—beauty, money, status. But they want something more. Something dangerous. Something that makes them feel alive. Their solution? A party—a meticulously curated gathering of New Bethlehem’s elite, from a desperate ex-NFL quarterback to a hockey coach with a penchant for married women, and a ruthless Wall Street “closer” who wields his wealth like a weapon.

One night. An ultra-elite swingers party. Multiple betrayals. And a murder that will shatter New Bethlehem’s carefully constructed facade.

Enter a world of troubled opulence and sharp betrayal that’s reminiscent of “The White Lotus,” “Your Friends and Neighbors,” and “Big Little Lies”—a world of spectacularly badly-behaved rich people where money can buy anything. . .until it ruins everything.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Despite their advantages, rich people were rarely ever cool, though they spent huge amounts of money trying to achieve it. And cool people were rarely rich because they were lazy, and part of being cool is not giving a f*. But rich people and cool people often interact because each has what the other wants.

He thought laws were made for people who weren’t smart enough to figure out how to break them.

Alex could feel his hands shaking; it felt like his blood had been replaced by some poisonous liquid made out of a combination of self-hatred and shame.

…her only plan was not to make any plans. To sleep late and keep the workouts light and go to the movies and take long walks and eat a little more than she should and drink a little more than she should and allow herself the beauty of boredom, the joy of unproductivity, the pleasure of being still.

My Review:

 

I fell into this cleverly penned tale and found it evocatively detailed, cunningly paced, highly entertaining, and delightfully snarky. I do loves me some witty snark, and this crafty scribbler has been quite gifted and generous with sprinkling it throughout his characters’ encounters and inner musings. The characters themselves are reprehensible, selfish, snobbish, and deeply flawed; in other words, realistically depicted for most of the upper class.

 

 

James Christopher Frey is an American writer and businessman. His first two books, A Million Little Pieces (2003) and My Friend Leonard (2005), were bestsellers marketed as memoirs. Large parts of the stories were later found to be exaggerated or fabricated, sparking a media controversy. His 2008 novel Bright Shiny Morning was also a bestseller.
Frey is the founder and CEO of Full Fathom Five. A transmedia production company, FFF is responsible for the young adult adventure/science fiction series The Lorien Legacies of seven books written by Frey and others, under the collective pen name Pittacus Lore. Frey’s first book of the series, I Am Number Four (2010), was made into a feature film by DreamWorks Pictures. He is also the CEO of NYXL, an esports organization based in New York.

Posted on

Book Review:  Frosting and Flames (Aurora Bakery Book 1) by Allie Winters  @alliewintersauthor

Frosting and Flames
(Aurora Bakery Book 1)
by Allie Winters

Amazon / BB

 

Rachel is no stranger to responsibility—or heartbreak. As the eldest of three sisters, she’s the glue holding their small-town bakery together, juggling taxes, recipes, and endless layers of frosting while quietly nursing the sting of her boyfriend’s betrayal earlier this year. Love? Not on the menu.
.
Her best friend, Jae, has other ideas, especially when it comes to the hunky local firefighter, Nick. Too bad Jae doesn’t know about the incident from their teenage years—the one where Nick burned down the bakery.
.
Nick’s spent years thinking Rachel despises him, and honestly, he wouldn’t blame her. But when Jae signs Rachel up to help with the fire station’s fundraiser, he and Rachel are forced into close quarters. As sparks fly that have nothing to do with fire safety, Nick starts to wonder if there’s a chance to rebuild what they lost—and maybe even something more.
.
Rachel can’t ignore the heat between them, but trusting Nick means letting go of the past. Can she take the risk, or will the flames of their shared history consume them both?
.
What to expect:
🔥Small town romance
🧁Forced proximity
🔥Steamy slow burn
🧁Baker heroine
🔥Firefighter hero
🧁He falls first

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

“Sometimes you have to fight bad behavior with bad behavior. They won’t understand they did anything wrong if you take the high road.” She motions toward herself. “Come on. Take the low road with me.”

“You’re diabolical,” I tell her. “Evil overlord in the making.” She shrugs, looking pleased, even though it wasn’t a compliment. “It’s a gift.”

That was dinner? I thought it was a science experiment.

One of the things about living in a small town is you never have to deliver bad news, because everyone’s already heard it.

“Is he bad in bed?” she asks, then lowers her voice. “Does he have a micropenis?” Her question jars me enough that I stop crying. “You think that’s why I’m upset?” “I’d cry if my boyfriend had a micropenis,” Sydney says with a smirk.

My Review:

 

I gleefully bounced in my chair with unbridled delight as I read this highly amusing tale. The endearing characters were clever and quirky, and the author’s wit sparkled like a glitter ball. The emotional tone was well-balanced and hit all the feels between hits of giggle-snort worthy humor. I adore Allie Winters, her word voodoo is strong.

 

 

Allie is the author of the Suncoast University series, the Bishop Brothers series, and the Lessons Learned series. She lives in sunny Florida with her husband, daughter, and two cats. A librarian by day, she spends her nights writing happily ever afters. She enjoys reading, playing video games, and all things Disney.